Worst Landing Ever
by ChallengingReality
Summary: There's bad landings, then there's the mother of all bad landings. What should have been a normal drop off for Clara at home turns into the adventure of a lifetime, in a realm and with an alien race that has never existed in her universe; Cybertronians. Run just got itself a whole new meaning. Takes place during and after Transformers : Age of Extinction.
1. Worst Landing Ever

Worst Landing Ever

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><p>Summary: There's bad landings, then there's the mother of all bad landings. What should have been a normal drop off for Clara at home turns into the adventure of a lifetime, in a realm and with an alien race that has never existed in her universe; Cybertronians. Run just got itself a whole new meaning. Takes place during and after Transformers : Age of Extinction.<p>

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><p>Disclaimer : I don't own Transformers or Doctor Who. The affiliated characters belong to their respective owners.<p>

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><p>VRRRRRRRRRRRR! VRRRRRRRRRR! VRRRRRRRRRR!<p>

The sound of the TARDIS was always a comforting one, even now when she was dealing with this new and different Doctor. This was his new face, older and harsher and far too crass for her liking. But he was still the Doctor, still went about trying to save the universe and having moments of absolute brilliance and hilarity that made traveling with him worth the danger and the sorrow. And she was sad, though she acted normal, put on her happy face and enjoyed the universe with this man. Even dating someone else didn't eat up all of her time, though she did care for Danny. The two men in her life had recently clashed, and now they knew about each other. She wanted to explain, wanted them to get along, but she doubted it was going to happen. Danny was too normal, and the Doctor too set in his ways. And the Doctor absolutely hated soldiers, and Danny had been that once. Their meeting had been...tense to say the least, but she remained hopeful.

"So, same time next week?" She kept the smile on her face, though really she wanted to beat the man on a regular basis, and she did smack him fairly often. He was a git, this one.

"Of course, of course." He waved her off without so much as a second look, opening the doors like normal. "Off you pop now, Clara." He was still upset with her about Danny, it seemed. With a sigh the young brunette exited the sentient time ship and found herself...not in her apartment. She turned around immediately to first get after him for his bad driving and then to demand he take her home, only to find the TARDIS had already begun to disappear. And being that the door was still open, it didn't seem to have been meant to.

"Doctor! You best be comin' back for me!" She called to him then sighed as the ship fully disappeared.

He'd be back, he had never left her totally before. Though it might be next week sometime before he noticed her gone, which had happened before when he'd left her in Glasgow. Hopefully she'd be chewing him out about it next week, if not sooner. Heaven help the man if he went and got distracted and forgot to come back to see her again for a month. Then she'd probably kill him, last Time Lord or not. Now then. "Where have you got yourself this time, Miss Clara?" She asked herself, speaking her thoughts aloud as she looked around. Seemed an odd place, and the slight movement under her made her think she was either on a plane or a boat. "Joy." At least her sarcasm hadn't failed her yet.

The sound of some sort of gun loading up or charging turned the human woman around to face a being enormously larger than herself. "Holy..."

"What are you and how did you find me?" His tone was clipped, professional even, like someone used to being immediately answered. But Clara had her hands up already, mouth agape. Well, she'd seen some strange things on her adventures with the Doctor, but this certainly took the proverbial cake. The...creature before her was at least as tall as a two story building, painted in chipped and fading neon colored paint and having a very ape like face even as he held some sort of weapon trained on her. She did notice, if vaguely, that the gun was painted differently than the rest of the mechanical thing.

"Stop gawking and answer me, fleshling." His tone didn't waver, but Clara heard something under it she knew about all too well from traveling with another alien. He was tired, and not the physical sort that could be fixed with a good nap and a cuppa, no. The kind that came soul deep, tired of something, tired of fighting maybe? But then, who was he fighting? It wasn't her matter, she had to tell herself, though being with the Doctor for so long meant she'd gotten some of his attitude towards butting into matters that were not hers to deal with.

"Sorry. S'hard not to stare, you're very...large." She offered tentatively. Clara was sure she was white as a sheet about now, and if her cranky Doctor were here he'd be having a heart attack about now. Pardon, hearts attack.

A rusty sort of noise came out of the machine alien, and she was sure he'd just snorted at her. Or he was laughing, it was hard to tell. "You're a strange little thing, human." But he hadn't lowered the mismatched weapon. "Your designation, femme." He paused, seeming to war within himself, at least she assumed it was a he. "Please."

"Clara Oswald." She took a breath and brought her hands down slowly, holding them palm towards the massive metal creature so as not to seem threatening. "Resident of Earth, live in London. I'm human, and its not very nice to ask someone you've met what they are instead of who." She didn't mean to scold him, but it had obviously been the right thing to do, because he lowered his weapon and started making that rusty, cough like sound again. Yeah, he was laughing at her and all she could do is stand there and scowl at him like that was going to do anything to a being that could squash her with very little issue. Sobering thought, that.

"You aren't afraid, Clara Oswald? Even when its obvious I hold your life in my hands?" He'd put away his weapon, and Clara got a better look at him as a shaft of light from outside flashed across his frame. He was dirty and it looked like he'd gotten the bad end of a fight. And the sparks coming off him couldn't be good either, and she knew nothing of mechanics. Well, not counting what little she knew and understood about the TARDIS.

"I've seen things scarier than you. Believe me, dangerous situations are nothin' new to me." And she was not going to elaborate.

"You've yet to see me in foul temper, fleshling." He had an accent to him, sounded almost British like hers, except it wasn't as pronounced. Maybe she was hearing things. "And it is prudent to ask what someone is when they show up in a ship that can appear and disappear at a whim. How did you even fit in that thing? It was tiny?"

Ah, so he'd seen the TARDIS then, probably saw her land. "Well..." Oh god, that sounded so Scottish! She spent way too much time with the Doctor. Before she had a chance to say anything else, however, an explosion rocked the boat she and the alien were on, knocking him off his feet and her into the far wall. "The hell..." She dove for cover as another shot fired off close by. "I think we'd best run now!" She called to him and darted away. "Come on gent, keep up!"

He gave a groaning noise then metal splintered as he was shot. "Hey, you leave him alone!" She called out to men now swarming the boat. Oh hell, she was in trouble. "Horrible time to be off rollicking in the universe Doctor." She snarked to herself as she ran in the opposite direction. She heard the squeal of tires and then the massive thud of something heavy hitting the ground outside.

Like hell she was letting them destroy this machine, just because he was an alien didn't mean they had the right to kill him! So..."Distraction Clara...come on now...think...think..." It was like a light bulb went off in her head as she finally figured something out. It was about as crazy as one of her last Doctor's plans, so maybe it would work just as well. It took some doing, but she managed to get around the men in the black vans and up to one of the cranes that she assumed was used in the dry docks like area they were apparently in to move the boats or cargo. Didn't matter what they were for, now they were going to hopefully save someone. She cursed as she climbed up into the control box and flipped switches until she figured out which one moved it. Then she had some fun.

The Doctor would be proud of her, she decided as she used the crane to pick up a large shipping container near by. Being dark it was not easy to do but she figured it out and then dropped the line so that the hooked container, crane line and all, dropped onto the dark cars with a satisfying crash. The men were all out, so they weren't killed, but several probably got hurt. With the container dropped she reversed the hook and pulled it out then somehow got it to swing and crashed into the boat itself, setting off some sort of explosion and hopefully buying the alien time to escape. He'd scrambled away from where they'd pinned him down before at the first drop, and now changed into a bright neon search and rescue vehicle and started away, tires squealing.

"Well, there's my good deed for the day."

Now to get out of there before the men in the black costumes got any bright ideas. She scrambled down and ran, not looking back and not stopping even as the night was lit by explosions and gunfire. She prayed he'd escape. It killed her to think he hadn't, especially since in knowing the Doctor, she could easily imagine something similar happening to him. As much as she and the Doctor argued these days, she wouldnt' wish that fate on anyone.

She ran until her legs hurt and her lungs screamed for a rest, breathless and exhausted, and it was then the neon search and rescue vehicle pulled up next to her with a squeal of tires and popped open the driver's side door. "Get in, hurry!"

Clara gaped then dove into the car, slamming the door behind her with a gleeful call for old times sake. "Geronimo!" And they were off.


	2. Curiouser and curiouser

Chapter Two : Curiouser and Curiouser

Disclaimer : I don't own either of these two worlds, they belong to their respective owners, which is not me.

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><p>He wasn't sure, exactly, what had prompted his decision to take the tiny squishy female with him when he'd made his escape from those that pursued him. Perhaps it was that she'd saved his life with the stunt she'd pulled on the crane, or perhaps he remembered another high spirited brunette that would have done the same for him without any hesitation or second thought. Either way, now there was a squishy in his passenger seat, his energon levels were dangerously low, and he was being hunted by the very humans he'd been trying to protect.<p>

Ratchet was, unfortunately, a medic with the tendency to fuss excessively over those in his care. Like it or not, now that she was with him, she was in his care. Little Miss Clara had just gotten herself into a war and a world that she had no business in. No matter where she'd come from. The brave ones always ended up destroyed. He remembered that from when the Lennox family had tried to hide him before. They; Will, Sarah, and baby Annabelle, had been killed before he could evacuate them. He'd failed them, and in doing so lost the last humans that cared what happened to he and his people. Now there was another human, a civilian, put into harms way because of him. Nothing he could do for it now.

She'd gone quiet after her explosive exclamation when she'd first jumped into the cab, slumped against the passenger door and still panting after her mad dash from those that were after him. "Are you alright, femme?"

"I'm fine, fantastic even."

"Your heart-rate and blood pressure are elevated and your respiration is at alarming levels."

"Oi, rude alien gent, stop scanning me without my permission."

"Its not rude to be concerned with the one who saved my life just now." His tone had bite to it, a little of his natural personality shining through even though he had little energy to spare to being cantankerous at the moment.

"Fine." She snorted and rolled towards the driver's side, seat-belt firmly in place. A smart one then. Good girl. "Just don't make a habit of it, I get enough alien tech pointed at me as it is."

That, on its own, was odd. Until his people had hit the planet alien life was regulated to stories and occasional, fictional, sightings. But she seemed not only used to it, but aggravated by its regularity. Curiouser and curiouser.

His attention was shifted from the femme to himself when something in his engine block sparked and started making a bad gurgling noise. Sounded like energon in the intake valve, but his scanners were barely working so he couldn't be sure. Either way, he had to stop and deal with it. Or perhaps talk the femme through it, if she was familiar with Earth vehicles. No other options.

Ratchet knew it was risky to stop, especially without knowing exactly where they were and who could be close by, but it was either stop or choke as his intakes clogged and his internals overheated. He chose to stop, pulling over as far as he could and hoping it was far enough. Wherever he was there were a good number of trees and rocks, and the temperature was cooler. Somewhere in the Rockies, maybe.

"Miss Clara, I require your assistance."

"What's up gent?" She sat up, finally seeming to realize they'd stopped. She was more rattled or exhausted than he'd first thought. Not a good sign. "Think we're far enough away from those goons to be safe here?"

"No, but I am in need of repairs. My intakes are clogging up and if something isn't done I will overheat."

Big brown human eyes looked at him very hard, a look he hadn't been given in a long time. "In other words you'll either drown in your own blood, or overheat something and explode."

"Exactly."

"And I thought the Doctor was danger friendly. Alright then, what can I do to help?" She was getting out the passenger side before he could answer, assuming she'd be able to hear him outside his vehicle form; which she would. Still he popped open the other door to circulate the cool night air into the cab. It would slow down the overheating process, and probably air out the cab, which smelled pretty badly by now since he hadn't had the chance to wash in nearly three Earth years. She hadn't complained, but it had to be bad.

The medic braced himself then forced open his hood, hearing something splinter as he did so. The transformation sequence was botched, he'd gone through too fast for things to go where they should. It was going to hurt going back to bipedal form, but he'd do it when he got the chance. Hopefully near some of his own kind who could help him more than this one tiny femme with too much courage and not enough common sense.

Back to the task at hand.

"Are you familiar with the internal workings of Earth's motor vehicles?"

"No, but I help fix the TARDIS periodically. It can't be any harder than that." He didn't know what a TARDIS was, but he assumed it was the ship she'd come from. "Just talk me through it. I'm clever enough to figure it out." If he'd had another option he'd have protested, but given where the leak was he couldn't get to it without the use of a hologram, and unfortunately his holographic projector was mutilated in the fight on the boat.

He vented loudly and settled on his shocks, making his entire frame sink a few inches and Clara jump back like she expected something to happen. "You know, when most things make that sort of noise, they blow up."

She'd said it with a straight face and even tone, and he still cracked up. He simply couldn't help it. He'd been so worried and lonely all this time on his own, and now he had a vibrant little spark of life to keep him company if he could just keep her safe. Being alone never sat right with him. Ratchet was a medic, and was thus used to always being around others; injured or just checking in. It pained him to be alone, and with humanity now against them, he'd been more alone than he'd ever been before. Clara was one of the rare ones that accepted, and he imagined when they had the time he'd hear all about this Doctor of hers and just where exactly she'd come from. For now, he had to get through this crisis and then on to another hidey hole.


	3. Trials

Chapter Three : Trials

Disclaimer : I don't own either of these two worlds, they belong to their respective owners, which is not me.

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><p>It was so odd, being around this gigantic metal being. Of all the alien races she'd encountered, this one took the cake on the scale of awesome. It wasn't just his size either, but that he was entirely sentient and made of some form of metal. A sentient machine, and not like the Cybermen or the Dalek. He seemed fully capable of the range of emotions and could feel pain. Right now she was under the hood, getting a look at what was in there and trying to figure out how to help him. As the Doctor's official 'carer' she always knew when someone was in pain. And this...being...was definitely in pain.<p>

And then his entire body made this loud hissing sound and vented out hot air, causing her to jump back in fright as she fully expected him to explode. She even told him so, which made him laugh. "I was being serious, you know." But she was grinning and pleased with herself. Laughter was better than any sound of pain. After a moment Clara went back to what she'd been doing, awaiting instructions and wishing she had the Doctor's sonic. Her first Doctor, not her current one since he didn't carry a screwdriver anymore.

Her alien companion chuckled a little while longer then seemed to regain control of himself. "You are amusing, Miss Clara." Something hitched and the big neon vehicle make a choking sound, coughing and sputtering while she helplessly tried to figure out what to do.

"Talk to me gent. Tell me what to do to help you, yeah?" She patted at the front headlight until he calmed down again, but the raspy noise he made couldn't be good. "You're in a real bad way." Statement not question. "Come on, talk to me. I don't know how to help you." The rasping got louder, and in that moment she realized he couldn't help her. He couldn't even help himself. Must have been worse off then he realized from that fight before. "Don't worry gent, I'll figure it out." She promised him and dug into his engine, looking for anything that could hold fluid.

She eventually found this big metallic thing she had no name for but that was caked in this bluish fluid that kept bubbling out from a small opening in the top. That was what was making the raspy sound. Clara leapt off the front of the truck and opened the passenger door so she could dig around in the interior for something she could use to pump the liquid gunk out of his...'intakes' he'd called them. But his lungs. Or what passed for lungs. She ended up finding a small hand-held vacuum cleaner with a hose thin enough to go into the opening she'd seen before.

"Keep calm Clara. You're the Impossible Girl, you can do this." She kept talking to herself, giving herself a pep talk so she wouldn't simply freak out. She was brave, she was clever, she was the Doctor's companion. She could do this without his help. He'd live, they'd get out of there, find his people, and he'd be alright. Positive thinking, Clara, that was the ticket.

Her hair was getting in her face, and she shoved it back as she circled back around and jumped to get her feet back on the front roll bar thing on the nose of the car. "Please work, please work." She chanted the words as she turned on the vacuum and shoved the little hose down into the blue caked part the rasping noise was coming front. For the first few minutes she thought she may have killed him in her ineptitude, and tears started blurring her eyes. "Breathe damn you! You have to live, come on now! Don't give up on me now, not after all I went through to save you!" She hit her hands to the sides of the engine block and then fell off as her companion started coughing as his intakes cleared.

"That's it!" She cheered and got back to her feet. "Come on then!"

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><p>Pain. That was what he felt. Intense, choking pain. His intakes had clogged before he'd been able to do anything about it, the burst of laughter having shaken his frame enough to do the job. He was hot, something internal was melting, terminal spark failure was imminent. And then...then he heard the demanding tone of the young human that had saved him at the boat. He failed to understand what she was saying to him, but it sounded like she was yelling something profane at him. Which was uncalled for, he thought as his mind drifted. But...the heat was seeping out, his intakes working frantically as the clog was removed and he was able to regulate his internal temperature again.<p>

He shook and coughed violently, wishing he was bipedal and could simply purge the mess out of his system. But he was not, and something had still fixed it, or started to fix it at any rate. The coughing started to clear his intakes and his systems cooled fractionally more, enough that he came back from the edge of stasis lock. Was she...still here? Why? She should have run away, should have gotten away when it became clear he was likely to explode. But...she'd stayed, she'd stayed and tried to help him despite the danger. Stupid femme. Brave femme.

"Should...have run." He grunted out the words and the smile she leveled at him was brilliant.

"Oh...I've done that. I'm always runnin'. The trick is knowing when to stay." She was beaming, hands braced on the front cage that protected his front end as she pulled at some small thing that was sitting inside his still open engine area. It was...a vacuum cleaner? Which she dumped the contents in a hole, buried them, then went back to return it to suctioning the external vent for his intakes. "Clever girl."

Clara beamed at him again. "I try." She remained leaning against the front cage, watching her progress. "Well, now that you're breathin' good again, mind giving me something to call you other than gent? I mean, what's your name?"

Ah, she wished to know his designation. He thought he'd already told her, but apparently not. "Ratchet. My designation is Ratchet, Chief Medical Officer." The last part was habit, but she gave him a look that told him she found that little fact interesting. Why though? There were doctor's on her planet, he knew that for a fact. What was so interesting about an alien doctor? Or medic, as his people called him. That aside, she'd saved him again. He owed this human a debt. In the least he would protect her until whoever she belonged to came to collect her.

"Ratchet then. Good to know." Finally she slumped against his front, sending alarm striking through him before she lifted her head. "I'm alright. Just tired. And relieved. Worried me sick."

"You barely know me, femme."

"I don't care!" Brown eyes flashed at him, giving him a moment to realize how much spirit she truly had before she continued. "You have just as much right as anyone else to live your life, and the stupidity of my kind nearly took that away from you! Someone has to worry about you, and since no one else was with you that someone gets to be me. Get used to it."

She surprised him, and in that moment he decided Miss Clara Oswald was going to be his primary responsibility from then on. Until she left his side, he'd protect her. He'd protect her, and in the process, he would have someone to keep him company while he searched for the others. Surely, somewhere on this rock Optimus and the others were awaiting him.


End file.
